No Kids, This is NOT "What Democracy Looks Like"

Okay, they're high schoolers, so I will cut them a little bit of slack:

Today, in response to the Friday night killing of unarmed black teen Tony Robinson by Wisconsin police, nearly 1,000 high school students marched the streets of Madison in protest, and stormed the state capitol demanding justice. "This is what democracy looks like," they shouted.

Sorry, kids, but I beg to differ.

Real democracy is boring. And it's a LOT of hard work. Just a few years ago in your own state of Wisconsin, the unions tried to effect supposedly democratic change against your asshole governor by storming the capitol in even far bigger numbers. They even went so far as to try and recall Scott Walker by referendum. And what was the ultimate result of all that fuss and fury?

When the Wisconsin State Assembly dropped the hammer on the state’s labor movement, the State Capitol was as quiet as a library. Maybe half a dozen ragged protesters stood outside the chamber hollering weakly, but the rest of the building and the grounds were serene. After two short post-vote press conferences, Madison sailed calmly on.

(snip)

Regardless of whether you’d characterize the right-to-work law as fanatical or not, it’s remarkable the extent to which Madison kept mum about its passage. Besides a few dozen Democratic legislators and a few hundred labor protesters the day before, the famously liberal city was placid as the conservative legislation rolled along. The liberals who have faced Walker have lost, and lost, and lost again, and progressive Wisconsinites’ stores of outrage seem, at least for the moment, to be exhausted.

Now, you could argue that Walker won in part because of the huge amount of money ($30 million) he was able to raise, mostly from out of state big business interests. But I would argue that he also won because the protests were co-opted by the hopelessly corrupt Democratic Party, which then put up a mealy-mouthed candidate running offering the same old lame ass centrist bullshit when, as the protests showed, what was needed was some good old fashioned angry leftist populism. That might have sustained the energy of the protests through the recall election and helped overcome the big money pumped in by the Koch Brothers (the percentage of the vote won by Walker in the recall election was nearly identical to that of his initial election victory despite the big money he raised). It also seems that once the protests themselves died down, most of those who participated put away their signs and went home to resume watching American Idol or whatever--sort of an echo to what happened with the Occupy protestors.

In and of themselves, protests are NOT representative of democracy but tend to happen when democracy is either being denied or has broken down. Take the case of 1960s America. The civil rights protests were followed up by years of hard work by such figures as Martin Luther King until civil rights laws were passed that finally put Jim Crow into his long overdue grave. The antiwar protests and the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention fiasco were followed by years of work by young leftist political activists that resulted in election reforms that led to the primary election system that (very temporarily) democratized the selection of candidates within the two party system. It was only when the voters, "exhausted" by years of protest, stupidly went back to sleep that the oligarchs saw their opportunity to begin slowly reversing the political changes wrought during the 1960s and early 1970s.

So while I applaud the protestors in this instance for at least getting angry about the latest questionable violent police action against a young black person, I caution them that they should not think a few days of sign waving at the state capitol is going to change anything. Get involved and stay involved and keep fighting the bastards with everything you've got. It's hard, it's often boring and not nearly as much fun as the rush that comes from taking to the streets. But if you're not willing to to do that hard work, which is the REAL work of democracy, then there is really no point in protesting in the first place.


Bonus: The whole world may be watching, but that doesn't mean it gives a damn

Recall Election Wankery in Wisconsin

Congratulations, Wisconsin. Exactly 18 months after the protests at your state capitol that seemed to provide so much promise of a real challenge by the citizenry against the awful status quo in America, you are now right back where you started, with the odious Scott Walker sitting in the Governor’s mansion. All would be activists and Occupiers should take note: this is what happens when you allow your passion and energy to be channeled into the conventional political process. For even if Walker had been defeated in the recall election, the only real difference would have been that his Democratic opponent would not have been so ham-handed as to openly signal his intentions to fuck over the working and middle classes.

This sad state of affairs is going to continue until you accept one incontrovertible fact: that the Democratic Party may actually be a bigger enemy to your cause than the Republicans. At least with the Republicans you KNOW exactly what you are getting—openly slavish devotion to big business, war and empire. With the Democrats you get empty platitudes and a lot of sunshine blown up your skirt, but at the end of the day you still get an Afghanistan surge, Guantanamo, drone missiles, Wall Street bailouts, invasive airport scanners, a predatory student loan industry, crumbling labor unions, unbridled globalization destroying good paying American jobs and raids on medical marijuana dispensaries and part of the senseless and never ending War on Drugs.

Look at how on the national level Obama’s election has effectively muted protest against America’s ongoing wars. There hasn’t been a major antiwar protest in Washington since Chimpy Bush split town, despite the fact that Obama added Libya to the menu and dramatically ramped up the drone missile bombing campaign. If one were not paying attention, one might be deluded into thinking that President Hopey-Changey has actually done something to warrant having been awarded that Nobel Peace Prize.

The Wisconsin protests of early 2011, coming as they did a half-a-year before the Occupy movement took to the streets, were a real eye opener for many people as they focused the nation’s attention on a direct assault against workers being nakedly directed by the political stooge of a family of oligarch billionaires. THAT was the real issue, and was what really mattered, not the meaningless party label being worn by the empty suit pushing the policy. By allowing the Democratic Party to con them into putting down their signs and redirecting their efforts into the recall election, the protest movement has effectively wasted its time, to say nothing of the countless millions of campaign dollars that merely served to enrich the media conglomerates that provided the advertising time. Plus, it gave the Koch brothers an excuse to spend millions of dollars pumping out their pro-oligarch propaganda in a key state just a few months before a presidential election in which they have vowed to defeat the incumbent because they don’t think he kisses their pasty white asses often enough. Truly a Mission Accomplished all around.

Again, the lesson for the Occupy Movement could not be any clearer: do not ever allow yourselves to be co-opted by the Democrats. Treat that horrible party the same way you would the Republicans, as an enemy never to be trusted. They will just use you in an effort to win elections that have become all but meaningless in terms of change that might benefit the average person. Make no mistake, in our post-Citizens United dystopia the deck is very much stacked against you. The oligarchs have virtually unlimited funds to use against any politician who steps out of line and to utterly crush any viable third party movement. It’s the ultimate uphill battle, but it will always be even harder if you treat one faction of your enemies as if they are your friends.


Bonus: Yet another disaster hits the upper Great Lakes

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Wisconsin) To Lay Off 150

There wasn't a lot of detail to go with this mass layoff notice. Here is htrnews.com with the story:

Thermo Fisher Scientific gave official notice Tuesday that layoffs at its downtown manufacturing facility likely will begin on May 12.

The layoffs of approximately 150 employees are expected to be completed within six months and will be permanent.

Thermo Fisher announced in December that it would be closing the wood manufacturing plant at 1316 18th St., after announcing the closure of its Columbus Street steel manufacturing plant about two months earlier.

Although I take note of this tidbit from the December story:

Around 190 additional workers in Two Rivers will be looking for jobs next year. The second of two manufacturing plants owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific, the lab equipment maker is closing. Earlier this year, the company said it was closing its steel manufacturing plant by year’s end and moving the jobs to Mexico. Around 120 workers were affected. Jobs from the now closing wood manufacturing plant are being moved to Texas. “Our leadership team continuously evaluates our business operations in an effort to increase efficiencies and improve our global competitive position," Thermo Fisher Scientific Director of public relations Ron O'Brien said in the press release. The company says about 150 non-manufacturing jobs will remain in Two Rivers.

So I guess it isn't too hard to conclude that globalization and corporate greed are the (usual) suspects here.

HP Enterprise To Eliminate Nearly 160 Positions In Madison, Milwaukee

This layoff notice article from a local Wisconsin radio station did not say so, but I gather these job losses resulted from the recent cutback in Medicaid and Medicare payments:

The largest private company in Wisconsin that helps run the state’s Medicaid programs will eliminate almost 160 jobs.

HP Enterprise Services has told state officials it will cut 134 positions in Madison and 23 in Milwaukee. The layoffs will occur between late April and late August.

Most of the jobs are clerical, and HP says some of the affected workers could get new jobs with the company.

It’s the state’s largest private vendor for Medicaid programs that serve well over a million poor and elderly clients in Wisconsin.

Not that it really means anything, but these will count as "private sector" layoffs, when clearly these jobs would not have existed in the first place without the two giant government programs. Something to keep in mind whenever a commentator talks about private versus public sector employment as if the former is somehow more noble than the latter. In the end, you're little people either way.


Bonus: Did someone say "Enterprise?" Ha! Gives me an excuse to post this awesome parody video

Flights By U.S. Airlines Hit 10-Year Low

More signs of trouble in the airline industry were reported this week by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Frontier Airlines will cut nearly 500 Milwaukee employees - nearly half of them flight crew members based at Mitchell International Airport - as a result of a major service reduction here.

Those job cuts will occur in April, according to information Frontier filed Monday with the state Department of Workforce Development under the state's layoff notice law.

Frontier said 446 employees will be affected by the cuts, to occur between April 15 and April 30. About 230 employees are flight crew members who will be reassigned to bases outside Milwaukee, the company said in its filing.

Denver-based Frontier has about 1,000 employees based in Milwaukee.

Many of the flight crews don't live in the Milwaukee area, commuting here via flights from around the country. But other employees - including maintenance workers, gate agents and baggage handlers - live in southeastern Wisconsin.

The news comes just four days after Frontier announced it will eliminate five nonstop routes from Milwaukee. Those cuts will reduce daily departures out of Mitchell International from 32 to 18.

Effective April 16, the company will suspend nonstop flights from Milwaukee to Dallas/Fort Worth, Grand Rapids, Mich., Kansas City, Mo., Philadelphia and Phoenix. In addition, Milwaukee-to-Newark, N.J., service will be suspended effective April 1.

Cutting flights are they? There is only one reason why they would do that...air travel is on the wane and they can no longer make money with the high price of aviation fuel. The past half-century or so of routine middle class air travel is quickly drawing to a close. In not too many years, it will be exclusively the privilege of the wealthy...before that inevitable day when it becomes just another forlorn and rapidly fading memory from the all-to-brief age of petroleum.


Addendum: After I wrote the initial post, I came across this article from Reuters, which pretty well spells out what is happening in the airline industry:

U.S. airlines in 2011 operated the fewest number of flights since the hijack attacks on New York and Washington depressed air travel and accelerated the industry's worst-ever financial downturn, government figures on Tuesday showed.

The Transportation Department said major airlines, their chief low-cost competitors and the biggest regional carriers, recorded 6.08 million departures last year. Takeoffs were not that low since 2002, when they totaled 5.27 million.

Reduced operations and good summer weather, especially in the East, helped airlines post a 79 percent on-time rating in 2011, unchanged from the previous two years.

The overall number of flights by U.S. airlines have steadily declined since 2008 when the recession dampened travel demand. Most recently, stubbornly high fuel prices have prompted airlines to further cut capacity to reduce costs and maintain higher fares.

So tell me some more about that alleged economic recovery we are now experiencing. I love fairy tales.


Bonus: No disrespect to Peter, Paul and Mary, but a lot of people don't realize it was actually John Denver who wrote this song

C&D Technologies to Lay Off 120 in Milwaukee

Looks like we can gain blame globalization and "free" trade for this layoff notice, as reported by BizTimes.com:

C&D Technologies Inc. will relocate some of production from its Milwaukee facility to a plant in Reynosa, Mexico.

While the Milwaukee facility will remain, the move eliminates 120 local jobs. About 100 employees will remain at the plant, 900 E. Keefe Ave.

The corporate FlackSpeak is strong with this one:

The company completed a comprehensive business evaluation and cited “intense competitive pricing pressure” as the reason for moving its power system product lines to Mexico. C&D said many of its competitors have also moved production to Mexico for cost reasons.

“This was a difficult decision but one that is sound and will allow us to continue production in Milwaukee,” said Jeffrey Graves, C&D president and chief executive officer. “Over the last five years, we have invested over $20 million to modernize our Milwaukee facility, streamline production, remove costs and improve efficiencies. Over the past several months, we were able to structure a solution that keeps C&D here and will help us realize those efficiencies. We’ve been a part of this community since 1999, and my hope is that we will be able to continue to make a business case for staying in Milwaukee in the years to come.”

You know what else would have allowed you to continue production in Milwaukee, asshole? Not moving your production to Mexico just so you can line your golden parachute.

Bonus: "She hit me with technology"

Mayville Products Corp. To Close Wisconsin Plant - 130 Jobs Lost

This plant closing/layoffs announcement from The Business Journal was quite straightforward as these things go:

Mayville Products Corp. plans to close its factory in Mayville in Dodge County, leaving 130 workers without jobs.

The layoffs are expected to occur between March 19 and March 30, according to a plant closing notice filed Thursday with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

The sheet metal fabricating plant, 403 Degner Ave., is expected to permanently close on March 30.

“We are very sorry that business conditions have forced us to take this action,” the notice states.

Gee...no bullshit spin, no lame excuses for off shoring jobs to China--just a plain, simple, "business sucks, we're outta here." That was almost perversely refreshing.

Weather Shield to Close Window and Door Plant in Wisconsin

Sorry, Wisconsin, but even if your attempted recall of your idiot governor is successful, as reported last week by Woodworking Network, it isn't going to help these people:

MOSINEE, WI -- Weather Shield's factory dedicated to vinyl window and door production here in Mosinee will permanently close by Aug. 31, putting more than 500 people out of work.

Workers, many of them members of United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, were informed of the decision by Schield Family Brands to shutter the plant last month. Layoffs are to begin Feb. 7 and continue through the summer as operations are scaled back and then ceased. Schield of Medford, OR, is parent company to Weathershield, SNE Enterprises and Peachtree Doors and Windows.

Central Wisconsin Business reported that Schield cited the ongoing housing crisis and refusal of union workers to extend its current contract, including accepting a pay freeze, as major factors in deciding to close the plant.

And the housing crash carnage just keeps on piling up, even as the mainstream media acts as if it is yesterday's news. You residents of The Badger State should stop worrying about that largely meaningless political kabuki theater show going on in Madison and instead look around at what is happening to your economic livelihoods. Scott Walker may by a psychopathic asshole who hates unions, but even so he wasn't the one responsible for closing this factory down. The corporate flacks are trying to blame the union, but ultimately it is the economy that's responsible.

Homeless in High School

There's not really a whole lot I can add to this sad story out of LaCrosse, Wisconsin:

When you think of the homelessness, you probably think of it happening in big cities like Milwaukee, Madison, and Racine. Its a growing problem in every Wisconsin city, big and small, especially among families with children.

The Department of Education requires each Wisconsin school district to assign one staff member to be a homeless liaison. WXOW called our local liaisons and here's what we found: There are 22 homeless students enrolled in the Sparta School District, 30 in the Viroqua School District, and 70 in the La Crosse School District. But the district with the largest homeless population by far is Tomah, where as of last week, 93 homeless students were enrolled.

The homeless students in Tomah don't stick out from among their peers with homes. Many are suffering in silence. One of them is Jake. The high school senior, like so many of his classmates, has no where to go.

16 hours and 49 minutes: the amount of time that passes between the end of one school day and the beginning of the next. Time many of the kids in this Tomah classroom have no where to go. Jake is one of them.

"Not too many people know about it," Jake said.

Social status is everything in high school so Jake asked us not to show his face or use his real name. The high school senior is one close to 100 homeless students enrolled in the district. There are more homeless students than there are kids on the football team.

"We have never seen numbers like this." Director of Pupil Services Paul Skofronick blames the economy. "It's hurting all of us without a doubt, but the kids are being affected because they don't know why."

The homeless in Tomah are hidden. They don't live on the street; instead they sleep in their cars, at camp ground, or on a friend's couch.

I remember high school being one of the worst times in my life because my parents were divorcing and I was a socially awkward teenager. But all of that pales in comparison to this. Note that this is not a story from a big city ghetto neighborhood but from small town America.

It sucks to consider this, but given where the economy is headed most of these kids likely have no future.

Wisconsin Protests Co-Opted by a Corrupt Political System

This is an addendum to this morning’s post about the union pension woes in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Remember this past February when, just as revolutions were sweeping aside autocratic regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, massive protests were also launched in Madison, Wisconsin, over Tea Party Governor Scott Walker’s ham-handed attempt to break the public employee unions? What a heady time that was. For a brief moment, the spirit of the 1960s seemed to reawaken as ordinary people took to the streets against “the man” in favor of social justice.

So how’d all that work out, anyway? Well, in short-attention span America, not too well as might have been expected. Rather than having their employees walk off the job and shut the state down until Walker backed down—while maybe encouraging their brethren in the private sector to do the same—the unions instead fixated upon a recall election scheme against the Republican state senators who voted for the union busting bill. The protesters put away their signs went home, and a political battle replaced the one that had briefly taken place in the streets.

Not surprisingly, the Republicans fought back by launching similar recall moves against Democratic senators, and the whole thing devolved from a passionate plea for fairness into an political farce. Here’s the latest from Talking Points Memo:

It is now the home stretch of the Wisconsin state Senate recalls, with six elections this Tuesday targeting incumbent Republicans -- which could potentially flip control of the chamber to the Democrats -- to be followed by two more elections targeting Democrats the week after. And the usually obscure world of state legislative races has seen a lot of money flooding into the state.

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, the labor-backed group We Are Wisconsin announced that it raised a total of $9.7 million for the recalls. The numbers are not as clear on the other side, but the paper reports that conservative groups are estimated to have actually spent slightly more than the liberals on the elections, though not by a huge margin.

For example, the Capital Times reports that the Club For Growth's Wisconsin division has spent an estimated $3 million to $4 million on issue ads in the races -- compared to just $1 million they had previously spent in the state in the last four years.

So, in lieu of any real change, a whole lot of money was raised and blown to hold a bunch of special elections to determine which Tweedledee or Tweeledum party should control the State Senate, money I might add, that could have been put to much better use for…oh I dunno, just about anything. The only folks that should be happy about this fiasco are the teevee and radio stations that are being paid to run all of the content-free political ads.

A common question on peak oil and other alternative news websites is: when are people going to get angry and take to the streets? Well, they did that briefly in Wisconsin, but didn’t follow through and this is the result. The protestors allowed their energy to be redirected into an utterly corrupt political process that provides no real possibility for change. But hey, you can get back to your texting, Twittering, Facebook page and Daily Show episodes much quicker that way.

Make no mistake, even if the Democrats win all of these recall elections, and the voters of Wisconsin dump the hated Governor Walker next time around, the assault on union wages and benefits will continue. The Democratic officeholders jut won’t be so blatant about it.